Chapter 29
“Where’s Caleb?” Xev asked his son, breathless from the strain of trying to get to his brother in time. He’d flown and raced through the shadows, doing his best to get here before they left.
Jared frowned at him. “He just left with his army. Why? Is something wrong?”
Xev winced as fear tore through his body. “Your mother’s with him?”
“Of course.”
Damn it.He was too late. Why couldn’t he have made it in time? “It’s a trap, Jared. They lured Caleb and your mother out of here so that they could attack the civilians here.”
Jared paled. “What?”
“I just found out about their plan. The Mavromino lured your mother’s army out on purpose so that they could attack. They’re coming right behind me. We have to secure the children and women. They’ll hit us where we’re weakest. You stay here in case they break through. I have to get to Lil and warn her. She’ll be their primary target. If they reach her first, they can neutralize Caleb’s forces and crash the gates.”
Jared shook his head. “Stay here? I can’t do that.”
Xev wanted to correct him. But this wasn’t the time or place. He had to get to Lil before they found her.
He took his son by the arms and did his best to reason with him. “Send a messenger to Caleb and Myone. Let them know. I’ll take some men and hold them off as best I can. But you have to stay here. No one else can hold them if they break through. We need you here.”
Jared inclined his head. “Then I’ll stay. Good luck.”
They’d need more than that. They were going to need a miracle.
* * *
“Dary?”
He didn’t respond to Myone’s call. Numb, he couldn’t move or speak. His knees were pulled tight against his chest with his arms wrapped around them. Silent and cold, he sat on the edge of a cliff, high above the smoldering remains of their defeat.
Technically not his defeat, but still.
Caleb’s screams continued to echo in his ears, even though his brother had long fallen silent.
He’d broken his promise and failed his brother.
All he could see was Lil’s body…Caleb’s grief.
I failed.
“Dary?”
“What if it’d been you?” The words were barely audible. Because that was his nightmare. Over and over, he saw Myone instead of Lilliana. Heard his screams merging with his brother’s.
She pulled him into her arms. “I’m right here, baby.”
But for how long? What would happen if she fell in the next battle?
Myone forced him to look at her. “I’m not human, Dary. I’m a trained warrior. They won’t kill me like that.”
She said that, but he knew better. He’d seen so many fall. Sephiroth and others.
Even demigods.
“Caleb’s destroyed,” he whispered.
“I know, and I’m so sorry.”
No, she didn’t know. There was no way to describe what it’d done to him. His brother had been shattered to the core of his being. He would never be the same.
And Xev understood it. If he lost Myone or Jared, he wouldn’t survive.
Worse? Caleb blamed him for not being there. Even though he’d done his best. Had tried to stop them. None of it mattered. It hadn’t been enough. They’d broken through and killed everyone they found.
I should have gotten here sooner.
Caleb’s right. It’s all my fault. I did this.
Pain radiated through him, alongside the guilt that would never give him peace. His family was whole. Caleb was alone again.
The injustice burned deep inside them both. How could he make this right?
But he knew that he couldn’t. Nothing could. Caleb would never get over this.
Damn the universe. Damn their parents. Damn everything.
Myone tightened her grip on Xev as she felt him trembling in her arms. She’d never seen him like this. Like Caleb, something inside him had appeared to break. “I’m so sorry, Dary.” She didn’t know what else to say. Her heart was broken for Caleb.
Lil had been such a kind and gentle soul. She hadn’t deserved her death.
But then, who did?
“Is there anything I can do?”
He shook his head.
So she held him, hoping to soothe some of the agony she saw in his haunted gaze.
“What are we going to do, Myone?” he whispered.
She didn’t understand the question. “What do you mean?”
“How does this end?”
How she wished she had an answer. But she didn’t have those powers. “I don’t know.”
Xev closed his eyes and pulled her against him, terrified of tomorrow. Terrified of finding her the way Caleb had found Lil. Over and over, he saw Kissare. Saw the images of war in his mind.
His panic attack was absolute. The gods were never going to let them live. There was no happy ending possible.
They wouldn’t let them go. He knew that now.
They were going to lose because the gods wouldn’t be happy until they made all of them bleed.
He just didn’t know how bad this was going to get before it broke him, too.